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Controlled aeration of rice in bulk
Author(s) -
Myklestad O.
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.2740190109
Subject(s) - aeration , humidity , environmental science , limiting , moisture , bin , rice plant , relative humidity , brown rice , water content , pulp and paper industry , agronomy , chemistry , mathematics , food science , biology , meteorology , engineering , mechanical engineering , physics , organic chemistry , algorithm , geotechnical engineering
Factors affecting the quality of rice during storage in bulk have been investigated, including environmental requirements for minimising microbial growth on the rice by convective and evaporative cooling. In laboratory tests, mould on Caloro rice was first detected after 1 1/2 months' storage at 25° and 75% R.H., but was evident after only one week on rice stored at 25° and 90% R.H. Limiting conditions for drying (and hence evaporative cooling) of rice during ventilated storage were ascertained from a study of the sorption isotherms, determined in the laboratory which indicated that during the last stage an aerating atmosphere of 25° would require to have a humidity of 75% R.H. or less in order to reduce the moisture content of rice to the desirable final value of 14‐15%. Rice with an initial moisture content ranging between 16 and 22% was used during a full‐scale aeration trial in which temperatures at various locations in the rice load (520 tons) were continuously recorded. Since these temperatures varied systematically with ambient temperature, heating of rice through microbial activity apparently did not take place during aeration—a fact confirmed when the rice was unloaded from the storage bin at the end of the aeration trial. A specially designed humidity‐controlling device was tested during the last 2 1/2 weeks of the major aeration trial and functioned satisfactorily.